Successful Queries: Tim Wojcik, Lashanda Anakwah, and “Bloodfire, Baby,” by Eirinie Carson

Welcome back to the Successful Queries series. In this installment, find a query letter from agent Tim Wojcik to editor Lashanda Anakwah for Eirinie Carson's debut novel, Bloodfire, Baby.

Eirinie Carson is a member of the Writers Grotto in San Francisco and a frequent contributor to Mother magazine. Her work has also appeared in LitHub, Notre Dame Review, Mortal Mag, Electric Literature, The Sonora Review, and others. Bloodfire, Baby is her first novel.

Hi Lashanda,

I am so thrilled to share with you a novel that you will drop everything to read over the weekend and won’t be able to put down: BLOODFIRE, BABY by Eirinie Carson.

Think Nightbitch meets Motherthing meets the multigenerational aspect of Homegoing and the wild unhinged-ness of My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

When her husband leaves for a work trip he cannot postpone, Sofia, a three-week post-partum new mother, suddenly finds herself alone with her as-yet unnamed daughter in a large house in a wealthy suburb in the Bay Area. She never expected to end up here, to live like this, and she thought it would all be, well, different. She thought mothering would come naturally to her, as it appeared to for every other mother she glimpsed out in the wild. Nobody seems willing or able to help her: not Emil, her absent husband; not Dominique, her childless best friend; not Buffy, Emil’s judgmental, waspy mother; not Edwina, Sofia’s mother whom she cut off long ago; and not Devon, her brother who moved across the country to get away from their messy, traumatic family life. Not even Amina, a friendly, put-together mom from her local park.

Sofia becomes a woman tormented by ghosts. As she slowly descends into loneliness, paranoia, anxiety, and, ultimately, sleep-deprived madness, she learns of an insidious ancestral haunting that has plagued the eldest daughter of the eldest daughter in her family. Before it becomes all too consuming, she must confront the history of the matriarchs in her bloodline dating back to 1700s colonized Jamaica.

What will Sofia do to protect her new baby, beleaguered by threats from all around? Who is this shadow that stalks her in the night? And what is she capable of? There isn’t anything she wouldn’t do, Sofia realizes—she’d even resort to bloody violence, if needed. And it seems to her that she just might need to.

Told in an irresistible, razor-sharp, charming voice and with a cutting wit, this is a maternal gothic story of the fourth trimester, of heritage and class, of the things our mothers pass along to us, good and bad, and of the types of mothers people set out to be versus the ones they actually become. Nothing like it has ever crossed my desk before, and I’m hoping you’ll share in my excitement!

Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer living in California. She is a mother of two children, Luka and Selah. A member of the Writers Grotto in San Francisco, Eirinie is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine, and her work has also appeared in Lithub, Mortal Mag, The Sonora Review, and others. She was the NEA Distinguished Fellow at the Hambidge Center and is a 2024 alum at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Eirinie contributes to her local paper, The Argus Courier, via a column, Eirinie Asks. She mostly writes about motherhood, grief, and relationships, and her first book, The Dead Are Gods (Melville House, 2023) was critically acclaimed by Oprah Daily, Nylon Magazine, Shondaland, and The Washington Post as well as winning a Zibby Award. It was also named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2023.

This is a simultaneous submission. Please find the manuscript attached.

Best,

Tim

Bookshop | Amazon

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When the submission letter for BLOODFIRE, BABY landed in my inbox, I was relatively new to the Tiny Reparations Imprint. I was seeking a read that felt fresh, new and would do what no submission had done for a while— fully capture my attention. Eirinie’s novel was pitched as “Nightbitch meets Motherthing meets the multigenerational aspect of Homegoing and the wild unhinged-ness of My Year of Rest and Relaxation.” I was instantly intrigued.

Agent Tim Wojcik’s well-written pitch letter effectively summarized the plot while also touching on the fundamental themes of heritage, motherhood, and what we pass on. A three-week post-partum new mother, alone with an unnamed baby in a new home, in a wealthy suburb, who begins to spot a shadowy figure in the dark corners of her home. Tim gave me just enough details to imagine the scope of the narrative as I pondered what else would be uncovered once I read. From his summary, I gleaned the narrative would be layered and affecting. His enthusiasm for the pages was evident, which made me all the more excited to dig in.  

And then there was Eirinie’s bio, which established her as a recognized, awarded writer. BLOODFIRE, BABY was her debut novel, but not her first book. Her bio also mentioned her frequent contributions to magazines I recognized. She had authored several columns, including a spot in her local newspaper titled “Eirinie Asks.” I began my read with high expectations; BLOODFIRE, BABY did not disappoint.

BLOODFIRE, BABY was fortunate enough to be in an auction situation, which meant we had several editors courting me at one time. From our first meeting, my then-agent Tim Wojcik and I were fans of Lashanda–it seemed she had really understood what the book was about, and her editing notes felt in line with the notes we had ourselves.

When it came to the final auction moment, which disappointingly lacked an auction hall, gavel, or chic assistants in sunglasses on cell phones raising paddles for anonymous clients, I was rooting for Lashanda. When it came down to it, she was the obvious choice, and I know I made the right one.

BLOODFIRE, BABY was a banger of a novel (if I do say so myself) before Lashanda, but after, it was clear that it became a polished gem with her. I am forever grateful that Tim and I had the balls to aim high.

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Lashanda Anakwah is an editor at Tiny Reparations Books acquiring fiction and select nonfiction titles. Before joining Tiny Reparations she worked at the Simon & Schuster flagship imprint where she co-acquired The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson, a Reese’s Book Club pick.

She is building a list that captures a wide array of human experiences, and is drawn to edgy voice-driven literary, upmarket and commercial fiction centered on complicated unique characters. Smart immersive prose written with craft, intention, and depth of feeling is sure to capture her attention. As well as themes of geographic identity, culture, and coming of age. 

Lashanda is also looking for transformative memoirs, in addition to narrative nonfiction that answers the “why” and “how” in regards to the socio-political-economic systems we are all mired in, with a clear vision of the way forward.